The BBS is getting some damn full of negativity, I thought we needed some positive spin. Am I excited as a Rox fan about next season? Yes! Are you? You should be!!! We have a solid nucleus and a lot of talent. We have a new coach, who has the right demeanor for this team and its talent. He'll push our players to be their best and to reach their potential. He'll make us a team or move the problem's out and bring in better players that fit a "team" concept. Yes, many teams have made some off-season moves. Buzz, excitement all-around...but improvement will be the proof in the pudding. We've added some nice role players in Pike and AG. Next year we lose Rice's contract and JVG will have a full season to assess our needs based on our new style of play. 2003-04 will be a fun season and a chance for us to glimpse at our great future. Yao should be bigger and better...that alone is enough to get my adrenaline flowing. JVG will craft Steve and Mobes into the backcourt that our team needs or die trying. MoT is healthy and will be a great low-post compliement to Yao. SF by commitee should work this year as we evaluate Boki's potential to fill that spot full-time in 04-05. We have good depth at with Cato and EG, but need one more combo 4/5 enforcer to round us out. Oakley would fill that spot and bring toughness to practice and certain game situations. Bottomline: We're not winning it all this year, so get over it. We should make the play-offs and improve. Next year with a year under JVG and Rice gone we have a chance to make our move to that next level. This year...don't worry, be happy and let's play some ball!
I'm ready! Thanks for the positive reminder. I especially like this comment: " JVG will craft Steve and Mobes into the backcourt that our team needs or die trying." Ain't that the truth!! seems like many cc.net finds have already died trying. hehe Oh, too bad RIET is going to be coming in soon to say your are naive idiot and the Rockets are not trying to win as much as they could....so we all should not only be negative but MAAAD!! hehe don't mind him...he's just upset he's leaving Houston and can't get season tickets.
Heypartner - Thanks for the support! I believe that JVG will make us or team, one way or another. Those that don't fit his style/system will be moved. Right now he's evaluating our talent and determining what approaches he needs to take to adjust attitudes/games to make us a winner. We'll get there...just need to be patient. We're so fortunate to have Yao...I mean truly blessed, the guy is gonna be awesome in new system.
Thanks for the positive comment. It's really easy to criticize and pile on, so a breath of fresh air is nice. I'm pulling for the Rockets to make it into the SECOND round next year. (!)
Speaking for myself I am pretty down about next season if we go to war with what we have. I see a lot of games Yao, Steve and Cat will bust there butt only we will lose because are other players are so outclassed. That will be disheartening to see. Also, I see us as having the great fortune of lucking into Yao/Francis in the last 4 years (arguably the luckiest NBA draft events since SA won the TD sweepstakes) without equal commitment by the brass to make the most out of our fantastic luck. For example, not matching a valuable player the same age as our core nucleous when not matching yields ZERO tangable (no pick or player in return, and no future or current capspace likely facillitated by not matching where we would be in a extra-competive position in the FA market [be able to offer more than the MLE]) and seeing no evidence in entering the trade market when guys like Jamsion or Sprewell (not that I want him) are going for chump change in terms of return player value because of other teams fire sales. I have to admit I a pleased with JVG as the coach (I liked Pike too but as a 7th man though, not as a Posey replacement), but I am not at all happy we havn't shown signs of getting JVG, SF, Yao and Cat the kinds of first rate role players/better forwards (which were within their means) they will need for the team to be the best in can be in the short term as well as long term. I am just being honest--but I really don't like the signals from the front office and am pretty discouraged about it. And of course we should make the playoffs because Utah is decimated, 500 in the WC will probably get you the 8th spot, but I don't see that as something to be much proud off when you core trio of talent (Yao, SF, CM) is probably top 6 in the West and top 7 in the league.
I agree, we'll make the playoffs, in fact we can be even #6 in the West. We missed the playoffs last year, but look at it this way: 1. We have a much, much, MUCH better coach. No, not better than Rudy, but when Rudy was the coach we WERE in the playoffs (#8 seed). JVG is a huge improvement over Mr. Mean. 2. We lost Posey, but Pika and A. Griffin are an adequate replacement. Now look at the competetion. Sure, Dallas, LAL, and Minny all got better. San Antonio and Sacto will be at least as good as last year. But after that?? 1. Phoenix didn't improve at all. Their best player had a surgery. And we were better than them before larry Smith took over Rudy. 2. Utah will be waaaay worse. 3. Portland will be way worse. As old as they are, Sabonis and Pip were their best players last year. Now this is just a bunch of potheads with no leadership and no poise. 4. GSW will be way worse. They lose Jamison, Arenas, Sura (he did play quality minutes) and Boykins and bring in Claxton, NVE and uncle Cliffy. Not even close. 5. Sonics lost ollie and will likely lose Drobnjak. They add Antonio Daniels and Nick Collison. A wash at best. This team played well after the trade for Allen, but he's been injury prone and Rashard's shoulder will have to be fixed some day. 6. Clippers lost talent in Kandi, Miller, Pika and possibly Odom. That's gotta hurt, even though they have a half-decent coach now and more stability than ever. 7. Memphis improved a little bit with Posey, and this team played quite decently after their 0-14 start, but still I don't see a huge improvement. 8. Denver improved a lot, but from such a horrible base. They are still years away.
I agree we are better than these teams with the likely exception of Portland (Sheed & Wells are their best players, and Zach & DA (post injury) have been improving) and possible exemption of Phx. But it wasn't MrMean that allowed Phx to win--the facts were Marbury, Marion and Stoud played far more determined (showed more heart) down the stretch than Steve, Yao and Mobley--that was the difference. But really I could care less if we are better than 6-8 teams in the West--Phx and Portland are not who we should be gunning for because those teams have no chance for a title now or any time soon either. Ask yourself this, since the offseason are we further or closer to building a championship team either int he short term or long term? With Minn, Dallas, SAs moves we are farther away from them long term and obviously short term we can't compete with those teams plus the Lal or Sac. If we had added/kept young talent int he forward spots at least we could be working toward a 3-4-5-6 year play to gun for a title--but not only did we not add anyone to fit in those plans but we lost our 4th best player who did fit in such plans because our owner looked to cut costs without having an equal replacement in young talent or current skill in mind.
You people can't underestimate how much good shooting will help this team. A lot of their problems stemmed from going 5-6 minutes without scoring in some games. A healthy Rice and Piatkowski, along with a more seasoned Yao should be nice. It never ceased to amaze me how nice the offense looked last year when they were hitting outside shots.
Oh wow, a real Rocket fan who supports their team all the time, that's interesting. Thanks for the thread Shark44, a lot of the negative Rocket fans need to be reminded of how awesome our team is. The Rockets will be making the playoffs this year, but don't stop at the second round, they got what it takes to go all the way! Realistically, I say they win 50+ and go to the second round, but there is no reason they can't win it all, I think they can. Can't wait for the season to start! ALWAYS BELIEVE! CLUTCH CITY!
Better shooting will help but in no current or future form does the defensive talent on the current Rocket team look to be championship caliber. Don't let our OFG% ranking fool you, in practical terms it wasn't that much better than the average team (like .01 differemce) and the amount of TOs we forced was flat awefull. In the bigger picture our defense provides very little resistance or pressure to the good teams and this doesn't look to change any time soon. JVG may help some, but we just don't have the combination of athleticism, length and strength to form the core of an elite defense (especially in the 3 and 4 spots, our 1 spot defense is also atrocious defensively, and the 2 & 5 spot defense is better than average but nothing like the Hakeem/Jordan level that makes up for other weaknesses). If there is any close to universal rule for winning championships if you must have am elite defense that makes others uncomfortable in what they normally do--and we just are not close to having the personelle to do that. Our offense was going to progress anyway with a better conditioned and stronger Yao along with the already formidable SF and CM. The problem is we got smaller and less athletic in the forward spots in a conference loaded with 4s and 3s that create loads of match-up problems on the offense end.
Scar - First, let me say I understand your perspective and the rationale behind your points. However, I'm not sure AG can't fortify our 3-defense and that JVG's style along with our talent doesn't change our defensive output significantly. Steve and Mobes have the skills, but defense is mostly technique and heart. Not keeping Posey was an interesting move, but I have to believe there was a good reason we didn't.
Shark44, I think you should read any of the threads in the Hangout that are started by YoYao. The threads I speak of are the heart of Clutchcity.net right now.
You know, Freak, that's the first thing I have agreed with you about the Rudy situation in a long, long time. Fortunately, I think this team is fully capable of it, unless Yao has some weird, unforseen problem.
LOL, as if this team would have even SMELLED 50 wins with Rudy T. I certainly am sad that Rudy's gone, and believe that JVG can get us at least 47 wins, but let's be serious, making the playoffs will be enough to justify Rudy's firing, since he didn't make the playoffs last season anyway.
I am very excited and optimistic about the new season. I expect JVG to work hard and be focused. I expect him to require tougher defense and more motion on offense. I expect almost all our guys to be better than last year, including all of these: Steve Cat Mooch Pike Adrian Eddie Mo Cato Yao I'm pumped, and fully expect us to win at least 50 games, and come in as high as 6th.
THE ROCKETS RULE... this year for sure in the playoffs... we will be sixth seed... Hey the only reason we lost so much last year is becuz we couldnt keep the big leads... We would let the teams back in and before you know it they beat us..
